Charity Choices

A Resource for Donors

For Donors

Where to give away your stuff in the DC area

Where to give away your stuff in the San Francisco Bay Area 

Where to give away your stuff in Southern California 

For more than 30 years, Charitable Choices' goal has been to help donors make good giving decisions and to help charities, especially smaller charities without large marketing budgets, communicate their work to donors. 

For donors, we provide easy-to-use information that tells you what charities do and answers some of your questions.  Why should I support your charity's work?  How can I be sure you won't waste my donation?  How does your work differ from that of other charities doing similar work?  How will you make a difference over time? 

You can find charities answers to these questions by clicking on All Charities A to Z or any of the other links in the left column. 

We also provide easy-to-understand information about the process of making donations.  How do you decide?  Should you support charities providing direct services to people in need (like food for the hungry) or support charities that try to change the underlying reasons that people go hungry?  How important is a charity's overhead percentage? What's the best way to give? 

We answer questions like these and many more and try to keep donors aware of interesting and useful information about giving.

How to check out a charity

How to decide which charities to support

How to respond to a disaster

How to decide: Don't assume that efficiency equals effectiveness

What about low overhead?

How to read a charity tax form

How much is given?  By Whom? To What?

Should you give through the Combined Federal Campaign?

One question we get constantly is where can I give away...furniture, toys, clothes, cars...the list is long.  In response we've put together a list of charities that receives "in-kind donations" in three cities so far: